Jartavius ‘Quan’ Martin

Pos: SAF

School: Illinois

Ht. 5’11″ 

Wt. 194

Games Watched: Wisconsin, Virginia, Iowa

One Liner: Versatile defensive back who wins with football IQ, ball skills, and fluidity as a defender

Strengths: 

  • Very good football IQ. Martin has high level smarts playing as a frequent single high safety at Illinois. He understands play development and what certain blocking looks indicate in terms of where they play ends up. He is a reliable pass defender who plays with good anticipation of routes and instincts in zone for where he has to break from his half turns and backpedals. While he has good instincts, he doesn’t rush or commit to the ball too soon, and has patience that allows him to attack the right gaps in a hurry and in a timely manner.
  • Very good ball skills. Martin is a great competitor at the catch point and has great aggressiveness to jar the ball free with great timing and poise to disrupt a completion. Martin is able to track the ball well by reading the QB’s eyes good awareness that allows him to be a great route recognizer and attacker in space.
  • Very good fluidity. Martin is a fluid athlete, and while he doens’t have elite athleticism, he has greased hips that allow him to have solid transitions into his breaks to the ball. Martin has good change of direction skills, and shows in off man that he can attack all angles after his cross steps with good quickness.
  • Very good versatility. Martin lined up all over the field for Illinois, from single high to nickel as well as a box safety. He presents similar versatility at the next level and can be a solid contributor at a variety of positions in the pros. 

Weaknesses:

  • Marginal hand discipline. Martin is a little too handsy in off man coverage and in man, beyond the 5 yard point as well. He often uses this to stay in position, but this could get called moving forward in the NFL, and he will have to find cleaner ways to stick on to receivers at the next level.
  • Adequate man coverage technique. Martin has some flaws as an off man and press corner from the slot. First, he has quite a few missteps during his cross step and into the transition. He has good hip fluidity but oftentimes he opens his hips too soon thus creating a situation where he is behind and will spend time recovering instead of contesting the receiver. 

Overall Assessment: Jartavius Martin is an extremely versatile safety who I think can be a great nickel defender moving forward, and can contribute at just about any position asked of him. I see the potential to be a solid single high safety as well considering his fluidity and football IQ. Martin is a sufficient athlete and can get the job done in terms of burst and short area quickness. He is a great competitior and clearly contests passes thrown his way with nuanced timing and high quality ball skills. Martin can be a bit handsy and will need to clean up man coverage technique before he can be a reliable off man corner from the slot, but he already projects to be a great zone defender and a reliable run stopper with the upside to work in man situations as well.

Scheme Fit: Zone nickel defender that can be rotated to single high, box or a Cover 3 safety. 

Pick Projection: Top 50

Grade: 6.40